BUDDHIST ETHICS

computers!you can keep 'em! library computer filter doesn't like Nec Journeys blog, maybe 'cos Margareta was swearing? Or me? Maybe it thinks 'art' is a dirty word? Margaret's pictures of beautiful women? Who know? So I write the whole thing in Yahoo and save it as a draft file. Computer at YHA won't open draft files. Fine. Back to library, email it to myself. YHA won't open Necessary Journeys blog. It is Margareta's beautiful women! (by the way there's an area near Takayama called 'Beautiful Woman Plateau' but I don't have time to check it out - the YHA filter won't let you look at pictures, the Japanese guy sharing the room says. He tries to hack the filter, but can't. I have to go to the information at the station, where I am now, where they have an open access laptop. Tralala. And then it completely scrambles the formatting!!! So - happy unscrambling!

Niigata train gets in at 20.07
Nagaoka train leaves at 20.12
Would I make that in Britain?
Would I hell!

Left Tsuruoka and headed south. Long trip. Train left at 18.30, got into Unazuki-onsen at 08.29. Huh? 13hours?! I check timetable again - oh, 7 1/2 hour wait for connection at Nagaoka. 23.00-ish to 06.55 the next morning. I decide to doss in waiting room at Nagaoka.Wouldn't really recommend this anywhere, but in Japan it's OK. The station is deserted. Some guy appears at some stage and dosses down with me in the waitingroom. I sleep scarcely a wink, keep waking up and reading 'Soul Mountain' by Gao Xingjian. Head forInland Sea, walking along the deserted streets of Nagaoka at 5 in the morning. Sun coming up, JapaneseAlps ranked upon rank on the city horizon. Touch the water - I've made it across the width of Japan! It's as warm as a warm bath. After a fair amount of confusion, changing trains, conductors shunting me onto the right train etc, arrive in Unazuki-onsen.Head for Information Office and book myself intoKuronagi-onsen Ryokan. It's a mini-train ride up the gorge then a 20 minute hike on this path hanging offthe edge of the gorge. The Ryokan is the only building right next to a side river, view from my window of two waterfalls and the crystal clear river itself, flowing over stones. Precipitous slopes climb up on both sides, thickly forested with Mischwald, mixeddeciduous forest. No sound but that of the river.

feel lonely
do zazen
sound of water

This poem says that when you do zazen there is noseparation. To talk about things, relate to them inthe human world, we separate them out, name them, makethem into pictures on the TV screen in our heads. Butthey're not separate, we're not separate.

feel lonely
do zazen
sound of water

In the constant struggle between 'the individual' and'society' there are a few ruses the individual can useto create personal space. In more liberal millieusthere is enough 'slack' in the system to allow theindividual to duck and weave, lightly camouflageoneself, pay lip service to society's demands and geton with whatever lights your fire. In more repressivesocieties it gets more difficult. In revolutionarysocieties or the exceedingly repressive it's basicallyimpossible (cultural revolution in China, forexample). Still, the individual needs the group ('society'), andmost especially if you have children, parents,brothers, sister, aunts - in fact everyone needs groupsupport of one kind or another and more especially atsome critical times in their lives. But what is theprice? You cannot be what you want to be, what you mayin fact be - you have to present a mask which theother Homo sapiens will accept. I don't know why thishas to be a mask, but it seems it does. It's likethere's some elaborate charade going on: I know thatyou know that I know that you are not that which youpresent and you know that I know that he knows thatshe knows that I know that it's not like that at allbut we all in general still want you to pretend thatthe you you are presenting to the me that I ampresenting is what I have been accultured to accept...

Rainer Maria Rilke says it better, of course:

DIE ACHTE ELEGIE(Rudolf Kassner zugeeignet)

Mit alien Augen sieht die Kreatur das Offene. Nurunsre Augen sind wieumgekehrt and ganz um sie gestelltals Fallen, rings um ihren freien Ausgang. Wasdraussen ist, wir wissens aus des Tiers Antlitzallein; denn schon das fruehe Kind wenden wir um andzwingens, dass es ruckwarts Gestaltung sehe, nicht dasOffne, das im Tiergesicht so tief ist. Frei von Tod. Ihn sehen wir allein; das freie Tier hat seinenUntergang stets hinter sich and vor sich Gott, andwenn es geht, so gehts in Ewigkeit, so wie die Brunnen gehen. Wir habennie, nicht einen einzigen Tag, den reinen Raum voruns, in den die Blumen unendlich aufgehn. Immer ist esWelt and niemals Nirgends ohne Nicht: das Reine,Unuberwachte, das man atmet and unendlich weiss andnicht begehrt.
[Duino Elegies: The Eighth Elegy – 55]

THE EIGHTH ELEGY(Dedicated to Rudolf Kassner)(my translation)

All other creatures see The Open with the whole oftheir eyes. But our eyes, turned inward, are set allaround it like snares, blocking its way out tofreedom. We know what's out there only from theanimal's face; for we take even the youngest child,turn him around and force him to look backwards atappearances, not that openness so deep within ananimal's face. Free from death, this, only we see; thefree animal always has its destruction behind and Godahead, and when it moves, it moves toward eternity like flowing water. Not for asingle day, no, never do we have that pure space aheadof us, into which flowers endlessly open. It is alwaysWorld and never Nowhere without No: that pure,unguarded space we breathe, always know, and neednever crave

So where's the rub? Society is clearly willing tosupport people who do not materially contribute:priests, swamis, gurus, fakirs, estate agents ... soone 'way out' is to become one of these categories.But you're still caught. You may well find that thesecategories are even more rigidly organised as asub-set of society than the wider society you aretrying to leave. Priests have canons, verges .. no,roads have them - vergers, bishops, conclaves,cardinals, popes around and over them. OK, I'll becomea Hells Angel. Wait a minute - I have to conform towhat Hells Angels are supposed to be like. I have todrink, swear, mow down little children, beat peopleup, drink like a fish, ride a hog (a Harley), act meanand ugly. Ditto to being a hippy. Ditto with being ananarchist. In fact, the only way to be a realanarchist is not to be an anarchist - now that'sanarchy! Anarcho eco-warrior animal rightists have toadopt the group-agreed mindset. So where's individualfreedom? I know, I'll become a Zen Buddhist! Myfriend, Zen Buddhism has a longer history thanChristianity. Trot off to Japan, join a temple - andbloody well do what you're told!

Why? Free-thinking individuals like the hysterical, er,sorry, historical Buddha,or like Dogen, start thingsde novo (from the beginning). They are Reformists,they start things off afresh. They start The New. Thentheir acolytes congeal around this freedom, codifywhat 'The Master' says/does, rigidify it into'Tradition', ie a 'system', a power structure. Thisgoes on for an aeon or two till the whole thing getsso stupid another reformer comes along and starts thewhole process off anew. Nothing interests human beingsmore than STATUS within monkey society, power. Theerstwhile freethinker, reformist is sanctified, ordeified ... made untouchable, unquestionable. Sure -watch the trick: the system may codify that you canmaul the founder ('Kill the Buddha' is such a one) -but this is codified WITHIN THE SYSTEM ie there is nomore freedom in this than saying three hail Mary's. Aprime example of this was when I was on an IZAUK(International Zen Association UK - Taisen Deshimaru'slot) sesshin (retreat) a lot of years ago. On thepenultimate day they hauled out a trayful of lambchops for dinner (the Buddhist retreats I've been onhave always been strictly vegetarian). I must'velooked a bit quizzical because it was explained to methat Taisen Deshimaru used to say, "mustn't berigid!". What had they done? They'd codified hispractice into their system. They should've servedkosher veggy grub - that would be killing the Buddha,that would be 'not-being-rigid'!

I am not advocating ‘do what you will be the whole ofthe truth’, I am not talking ‘universal solutions’, Iam talking about freedom. Quite obviously, societyneeds traffic lights, policemen, judges, schools,bosses… in the YH last night a group of late arrivalswere laughing and talking in the common space wayafter official lights-out. I lay in bed for a while,trying to get to sleep and then stormed out and toldthem to shut the fuck up.

Where's the freedom? In Buddhist Ethics? BuddhistEthics consists in doing the right thing in the rightplace at the right time. What's the right thing,where's the right place and when's the right time? Theright time is NOW, the right place is HERE, and theright thing to do is what you do HERE and NOW. That'sBuddhist Ethics sorted.

And the Buddhist Dharma (ie Path or Teachings)? TheBuddha was a bloke who said, "hey, hang on a mo',there's something funny going on here." That's theBuddhist Dharma sorted.

At 6 o'clock the Buddha in the temple I'm staying in in Takayama
gets up and starts banging away. "Where'smy clean underwear?"
he grumps at his wife. "What'sfor breakfast? Damn - forgot to get
any milk out of the freezer last night! Kids upyet?"I can't sleep
through that racket, get up, go fora pee.
(The YHA in Takayama is a practicing temple. They getup and start banging the gong downstairs and chantingat 6 am in the morning)

Back at Kuronagi-onsen Ryokan I grab towel,head for rotemburo. A 'rotemburo' is a mixed open-air hot bath.This one's right by the side of the river, set amongstlarge boulders, steaming hot. No-one in it. Damn. Anice female or two would've been nice. I strip, washby the river and jump in. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh whewwwwwwwwgeeeeeee yahoooooooo. Not even any kappas around, asfar as I can see. 'kappas' are mountain pool sprites,but they're not very nice. They, er, pull your liverdown through your arse and eat it (well, the LonelyPlanet guide says they do!). Kappas have a cavity ontop of their heads which has water in, and it's fromthis that they derive their magical power.Fortunately, all you have to do if you meet a kappa isbow deeply to it. As it's Japanese, it's compelled tobow deeply in return, on which the water in the cavityruns out and it can't eat your liver! So that's OK.

I have a nice hot soak, return to Ryokan and have aloooooong snoooooze.

Universe got constipated
excreted human
suff, what have we here?

I suppose poets are apart, by choice and temperament.A certain distance is required, a sense of aloneness,a certain ragged way with the Universe, a jaundicedeye; a sense 'of the left' or 'to the left'. Sinister.Ability to pay attention to insignificance. Sense ofskewedness, off-set-ness; unwillingness to believewhat others seem to believe so easily

a certain stink
must be humans around

Leaving Kuronagi-onsen
Little light-brown frogs
jump out of my way

No, I insist. Beauty is offset. A 'beauty spot' on theside of a beautiful woman's face. Zuiganji offset tothe left. Entsuin, the path staggered in three's tothe left. The glaze on the vase at Kusakabe Mingei-kanat Yoshijima-ke in Takayama: a random dribble down theside of the vase. If Japan never contributed anythingelse to world culture this random dribble would beenough! A selection rice crackers I bought are packednot so that each row is the same, but offset, sothere’s an irregular line down the packet …. Beauty.Life is offset to the left of the Universe, thenecessary sour note in the cosmic harmony. Acousticengineers say we cannot hear a pure note - we needsomething which jars, something offset to hear.

The Buddha, the Perfect One, left his wife and childto seek an answer, to seek 'Enlightenment'. So it iswritten. He was wrong. Humans are weak and needy andoffset to the left.

Humans. Snake in grass of Universe
Bang gong
Do zazen

Buddha he make joke
burekfasto 7 o'clock, not 7.30
break off zazen, eat burekfasto!